When I was 13, I pretty much did whatever I wanted to do. Both of my parents worked full-time and left me and my younger brother (he would have been 9 then) home alone. I guess I was supposed to be watching him and taking care of him, but all I did was ignore him, beat him up, or leave with my friends.
I did a lot of things I wasn’t supposed to do, but nothing really bad like drinking or drugs or running around with boys. I’d have my two best friends over to watch TV, swim in the pond, or just hang out. One of my friends was the first person we knew to get MTV, so we’d go to her house to hang out. We’d ride our bikes all around (very rural area), but weren’t supposed to cross the highway or go into town. We did both. We even knew where my dad hid the keys to the ATV, and we’d ride it all around our property like maniacs. Even my little brother would ride that thing when our parents were gone.
I was allowed to have sleepovers any weekend I wanted, at my house or at a friend’s house. We were allowed to walk around the mall without an adult, although one of our moms was always somewhere in the mall too. I never had a curfew of any kind, but when I was that young it was generally expected I would be home by dark in the summer and by dinner during the school year.
Before we moved out to the country, we lived in a suburban area and well before I was 13 I was allowed to walk alone or with friends to a shopping center a few blocks away. I’d buy books at the bookstore or candy at the drug store. I’d go to the neighborhood pool, friends’ houses, and have sleepovers probably starting around age 10. I turned 13 in 1987 and grew up in the midwest.